From The Canadian Jewish News, Sept. 28, 2000
Sam Lipshitz, noted social activist and champion of the Yiddish language, died recently in Toronto after suffering a stroke. He was 90.
The day before he had the stroke, Lipshitz put to bed the Rosh Hashanah issue of Fraternally Yours, the newsletter of the New Fraternal Jewish Association, which had broken away from the United Jewish People’s Order in 1960. A founder of the association, Lipshitz edited the publication for 40 years.
A member of the Communist party until 1957, Lipshitz had been editor of the Vochenblatt, a party organ, for 20 years, and at one time its administrator. He was one of the party’s stalwarts, travelling across Canada to recruit interest in the movement.
Then Lipshitz went to Moscow with other Canadian Communist party leaders to find out for himself whether it was true that Jewish writers were being executed under the Soviet regime. When he realized the rumours were true, he broke with the party.
After the break, he became known as a champion of the Jewish left. He also continued his activities as a writer, editor and Yiddish language champion, and for seven years, in addition to his other activities, was the editor and author of The CJN’s Yiddish column. He remained an active member of the committee for Yiddish of UJA FEDERATION until just before his death.
Lipshitz was born in Radom, Poland, and came to Canada alone at the age of 17, all his family having died in the Holocaust. His first job in Canada was at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal.
His daughter May Cohen, a professor emeritus at McMaster University in Hamilton, recalls that one of her father’s favourite stories was of his traditional Jewish wedding at a restaurant in Montreal to Manya, who predeceased him four years ago.
“Apparently someone from the party saw the event, and my father received a stern note from the party’s central committee the next day that he must not take part in religious affairs again.”
Lipshitz was married to Manya for 66 years. He was one of the first Canadians to visit Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps in 1945, and his daughter recalls many people coming to her father’s apartment seeking news of relatives. “I remember him listening carefully to each name, consulting his notepad, and repeating ‘nisht du, nisht du,’ (not there) to every request.”
At one time, his daughter said, Lipshitz worked as a linotyper in Toronto for $5 a week, and Manya used to take chicken soup to the shop for his lunch. Later, he opened his own business, Trade Typesetting, from which he retired in 1975 to pursue his other interests.
Surviving Lipshitz, in addition to his daughter, are a son, Joseph Lipman of Lafayette, Indiana, a professor of mathematics at Purdue University, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. ♦
